Topics

The Senators arrived at the Bell Centre Mar. 15 with visions of closing in on at least the Philadelphia Flyers, who they trailed by five points in the race for the last wildcard spot.

There was also some hope they could catch the slumping Habs, who had dropped three in a row. They had nine more points than Ottawa, but they had also played two more games.

The trends looked like that would continue when the Senators held a 4-1 lead with less than three and a half minutes to go. But then came the Montreal Meltdown.

The Senators blew the lead, lost in overtime, then dropped their next four games. The Habs won their next three and eight of 10 before the teams met Friday at Canadian Tire Centre.

“Games like that can be turning points,” said Senators captain Jason Spezza, whose team is 4-5-1 since the collapse in Quebec. “It was frustrating at the time, it was disappointing at the time. That was a crucial game. We had more games after that, we could have won and erased that, but looking back you should never give up that type of lead.

“It was a turning point, but that’s not the reason we’re out of the playoffs right now.”

Habs centre Danny Briere smiles as he remembers the scene in the Habs dressing room after what was the greatest final five minute comeback in NHL history. He remembers a lot of energy, guys jumping around, excited.

“There was just something special about it ... it was definitely the best feeling of the year,” said Briere. “Without a doubt, it’s the game that kind of turned it around for us. We were on a little bit of a slide, we weren’t feeling good about ourselves, we were wondering where we were going a little bit ... and then those last five minutes kind of turned the whole season around.

“We went from battling with the teams just to try and get in the playoffs, to battling for home ice now. That was definitely the turning point.”

Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher agreed.

“Ever since then we’ve been rolling and have continued to build on that game,” he said. “It’s kind of jump started us into the position we’re in now.”